New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The Cabinet on Monday cleared
four legislations for implementing GST as the government
sprints to meet the July 1 schedule to rollout the indirect
tax reform which can add up to 2 per cent to India's economic
growth.

The bills on compensating states for loss of revenue from
GST rollout in first five years as well as those enabling levy
of the new tax on intra/inter state movement of goods and
services will be introduced in Parliament this week.

The approval of Parliament, coupled with a separate one
by all State Assemblies, will complete the legislative process
for the roll out of one-nation-one-tax regime by merging
central taxes like excise duty and service tax as well as
state levies like VAT.

The GST Council has already approved four-tier tax slabs
of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent plus an additional cess on
demerit goods like luxury cars, aerated drinks and tobacco
products.

The work on for putting various goods and services in
different slabs is slated to begin next month.

"The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has approved the four GST related bills -- The Central
Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The CGST Bill), The
Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The IGST Bill),
The Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The
UTGST Bill) and The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to
the States) Bill 2017 (The Compensation Bill)," an official
statement said.

These will be introduced as Money Bills in the Lok Sabha
this week.

"It could be even today," a source said, adding that
discussion on the four legislations could happen together.

The GST legislations were the only agenda in today's
Cabinet meeting.

"The passage of these four GST related bills will pave
the way for the biggest reform in the area of indirect taxes
in the history of independent India," said the statement.

With the Cabinet approval of these four bills, the GST
regime in India is in the final stages of culmination and the
GST law will most likely be implemented from July 1, it said.

The statement further said: "Introduction of GST would
also make Indian products competitive in the domestic and
international markets. Studies show that this would have a
boosting impact on economic growth.

"It is expected that the implementation of the Goods and
Services Tax law will lead to an increase in Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) of the country by 1-2 per cent. This in turn
will lead to the creation of more employment and increase in
productivity." .